AGRIBOT – ROBOTIC SOLUTION TO FOOD SUSTAINABILITY
Food sustainability is key to human survival. Robotic solutions have started playing large roles in automating farming tasks in order to assist with crop yield and the efficiency of production. Due to the unreliability of and lack of manual labour in many parts of the world, Agribots are playing bigger roles. One of the biggest advantages of Agribots is that they can operate 24/7, 365 days a year without payment. Agribots are being used more often in dairy farms to milk cows while others are used to shear sheep. Agribots are fast becoming very important to farmers by gathering valuable data; milking cows; automating animal feed; measuring the right amount of pest control, detecting weeds and pests, harvesting and ploughing with unmanned tractors. In many parts of the world farm labour is scarce and difficult to come by. In 南非 for example farm labourers endure gruesome attacks. These attacks on farmers result in the closure of the farm for an extended period of time resulting in the loss of large quantities of crops. Food sustainability is dire in Africa and many parts of the world. “Each day, 25,000 people, including more than 10,000 children, die from hunger and related causes. Some 854 million people worldwide are estimated to be undernourished, and high food prices may drive another 100 million into poverty and hunger. . 90 percent of the world’s farms produce over 80 percent of the world’s food. They also manage about 75 percent of farmland worldwide. Yet, paradoxically, these farmers are often poor and food insecure themselves. Due to the increase in the world’s population annually, there is a growing demand for food. This has led to increasing pressure on farmers to produce crops. In order to meet this demand, farming innovations are vital for the future of food and agriculture. Constant innovations in agriculture is thus needed to constantly feed a growing and increasing population. Innovation in agriculture is also critical to help farmers use resources in better and more efficient ways. “Innovation is one of our best tools for creating a #ZeroHunger world.
LENS WITH VARIABLE OPTICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Research work on creating a lens, the optical power can be changed depending on human needs. Most people have visual impairments that need to be corrected with surgery or optical devices (glasses and contact lenses). The optical characteristics of the human eye vary depending on age, health, intensity of visual load. We propose to give people the opportunity to smoothly adjust the optical power of the spectacle lens by changing the transparent tubes between the two windows of transparent films. Experimental studies have shown the possibility of adjusting the optical power of the proposed line in a wide range. Existing devices and materials for changing the optical power of the line are analyzed. The design of a lens with variable optical characteristics is proposed, which is created from two window films, the space between which is filled with liquid. Publicly available materials for the outer shell of the lens and liquid for its filling. The effect of the amount of liquid to be filled on the optical power of the lens was experimentally determined. The formula for experimental finding of focal length of a lens is entered. Novelty is impossible because you can use the lens in another field. For example, in the future it is planned to perform an experiment with a lens system to create, for example, a telescope.
Biodegradation of Post-Cured Photopolymeric Resin of Stereolithography 3D Printers Using Galleria mellonella Larva.
The present research has as main objective to degrade the post-cured photopolymer of the stereolithography 3D printer resin using Galleria mellonella larvae. It is necessary to consider that the use of materials from 3D printers tends to increase considerably and in approximately seven years about 10% of everything that will be produced in the world will come from this type of printing. Considering also that the increase in population growth and technological development are directly linked to the increase of solid waste on the planet, in particular to polymeric materials, there is a need to degrade and give an adequate end to waste, avoiding a notorious accumulation along the time. For this purpose, Galleria mellonella larvae will be used because of it's comprovated capacity to degrade polyethylene, to find out if it is capable of biodegrading the post-cured resin of the printer. To carry out the research, compositional tests were done in partnership with the SENAI Institute for Innovation in Polymer Engineering, located in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, and the creation of the larvae and degradation of the photopolymer will be carried out in partnership with the University Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (UFCSPA). The data analysis will be based on the crystallinity determination tests by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy (ATR) that will also be applied in the larvae feces after contact with the polymer to assess for degradation. As a result of the compositional tests, the ATR showed predominantly characteristic absorptions of acrylic resin; in the TGA test, the loss of mass described in the test is related to the loss of mass of organic material, mainly polymer. Finally, in the DSC test a thermal event was observed in the heating of the sample, with peaks at 125 ° C (Tpm), characteristic of fusion, and a thermal event in the cooling of the sample, in 112 ° C (Tpc), characteristic of crystallization. Based on the analysis of the results obtained, it is possible to infer that most of the composition of the photopolymer is acrylic resin, widely used in stereolithography 3D printers. The research has the future objective of isolating the substance into the larvae responsible for degradation so that it can be degraded on industrial scales. The research started in March 2020 and is still under development due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which compromised the planned tests.